Big fob beefietg fobe-and-aft sails



UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEIoE.

ISAIAH W. GILL, OF EXETER, NE7 HAMPSHIRE.

RIG FOR REEFING FORE-AND-AFT SAILS.

Specification of Letters Patent No.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, ISAIAH IV. GILL, of Exeter, in the county ofRockingham and State of New Hampshire, have invented an Improved Rigfor, or New Mode of Reeng Fore-and-Aft Sails; and I do hereby declarethat the saine is fully described and represented in the followingspecification and the accompanying drawings, of which- Figure l, is aside elevation of a mast provided with my rig with the upper sail set orunfurled. Fig. 2, is an elevation of the same with the sail as furled orbrailed up.

My invention is particularly intended for large schooners, but may beapplied on other descriptions of vessels. In carrying out the same,instead of one mainsail I employ two, one placed over the other, and Ialso apply to the mast extra cross trees.

In the drawings, A, exhibits the mast having at its head, a cap, B, andthe usual cross trees, C. At about two fifths of the distance betweenthese cross trees and the deck, I apply to the mast extra cross trees,as shown at, D, downward as well as upward from which, shrouds or ropes,provided or not with ratlines may be made to extend, as shown at a, a,a, c, Z), as shown in the drawings.

To that part of the niast, which is below the extra cross trees, I applya main boom, E, and an extra boom or gai, F, and I arrange the main gaitG, above the gait', F, and apply it to that part of the mast which isabove the extra cross-trees by means of a ring or barrel, H, to slidefreely on the mast, the gat being connected to the barrel by a fork orbrail I, so formed and hinged to the ring or barrel as to enable thegait' to be either elevated up into parallelism with the mast as shownin Fig. 2, or raised and dropped into the position as exhibited in Fig.l.

The mast I provide with a stop band or shoulder, c, to arrest thedescent of the said ring, and support the gatf when lowered down to itslowest position. Furthermore, to each gaff, a peak halyard and anelevating rope e, should be' applied, those of the 26,758, dated January10, 1860.

lower or extra gai being carried through blocks suspended from the lowercross-trees.

To the boom, E, and the extra gaf, F, I apply a small mainsail, K, andover the gai, F, I suspend from the ga, G, an extra sail, L, which mayhave the form as shown in Fig. l. This extra sail should be providedwith rings or hoops to slide on the upper part of the mast, and the sailnear the mast should extend nearly or quite down to the extraFurthermore, I provide the extra sail not only with buntlines, M, M, forclewing it up to the upper gaff, but with a line or rope, N, attached toits lowermost outer corner and carried around a sheave placed in theextra gat near its outer end. From thence, the said rope N, is led alongbelow the gaf to a block It, suspended from the heel of the gait. Fromthis block the rope is carried down to, or near to the deck and belayed.

The buntlines are to be carried around the upper sail and down towardthe deck, so that when they are pulled on, or drawn on by sailors ondeck, theywill clue up or furl the sail, provided the rope, N, is slack.

To reet the upper sail, we have only to drop the upper gait' and haul itup into position as shown in Fig. 2, at the same time or subsequently,we pull on the buntlines so as to clue up the sail. In order to set thesail, we should slacken the buntlines, raise the gait1 and haul in theline, N.

Some of the advantages of my new rig or mode of reeing fore and aftsails in comparison to the usual application of a mainsail, are asfollows: It enables the vessel to lie very close to the wind. As themainsail is divided, as it were into two, there will be less momentum ineach sail when slatting during a light breeze and rolling sea. Therewill be less wear and tear in taking in sail. There will be a saving inthe cost of the shrouds, as they are not required to be so long and theyafford more support to the mast in consequence of their greater spread.The upper sail can be made of lighter canvas than the lower sail and canbe taken in and reefed with much less labor than is required to take inor reef a mainsal of the ordinary kind. So in case7 the head of the mastshould be carried away the efficiency of the rig would not be affected.

What I claim is* The above described arrangement and application of theeXtra sail, gaf and crosstrees With respect t0 the mast and the mainHENRY B. WELLS, SAM M. WILCOX.

